Parliamentary questions
Tommy Sheridan
857 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
18 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to reduce the number of patients who experience a delay in receiving the appropriate treatment due to their illness being misdiagnosed, medical notes being lost or appointments being cancelled by hospitals.
Answer · Susan Deacon: Responsibility for dealing with treatment delays caused by misdiagnosis, lost medical notes, cancelled appointments or any other reason rests at the local level. These are ultimately clinical governance issues and we would expect matters like serious delays c…
18 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions major operations at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow have been cancelled, after the patients have been admitted to hospital and prepared for surgery, due to a lack of intensive care beds in the hospital.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The information requested is available from South Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust, which has management responsibility for the Southern General.
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will intervene in the current dispute in Coatbridge College regarding imposition of a recognition and procedure agreement; whether it has held discussions with the Principal and/or the Educational Institute of Scotland College Lecturers' Association branch, and what its policy …
Answer · Henry McLeish: Scottish Ministers have no locus to intervene in such matters.<P>Relations with its staff trade unions are entirely a matter for the Board of Management of Coatbridge College. A college board has a statutory duty to manage the college and to provide suitable …
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review the composition of boards of management within the 47 further education colleges whereby at least 50% of the members of boards are unelected and how it ensures that board members are accountable and representative.
Answer · Henry McLeish: I have no plans to do so.<P>Schedule 2 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 requires that not less than half of the total number of the board must be appointed by the board from among persons, not being members of the staff or full-time stu…
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive on what grounds the trade union representatives on further education college boards of management are the only representatives who are required to be elected.
Answer · Henry McLeish: Schedule 2 of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992 does not provide that any member of a board of management must be a representative of a trade union. However, it does provide that one of the board members shall be elected by the teaching sta…
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to change management arrangements within the 47 further education colleges and, if so, whether it will do so within this parliamentary session.
Answer · Henry McLeish: I refer the member to my answer to question S1W-6962.
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to rescind the Direction (19A notice) served on North Lanarkshire Council Direct Labour Organisation with immediate effect in the light of the conversion of its #4.8 million deficit to a predicted #1 million profit in the current financial year and what contribution the D…
Answer · Frank McAveety: No. The Direction will be reviewed when the delivery of North Lanarkshire's Business Plan for recovery is complete.
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a Direction (19B notice), rather than a Direction (19A notice), should have been served on North Lanarkshire Council Direct Labour Organisation.
Answer · Frank McAveety: North Lanarkshire Council was served a 19A Notice on 1 July 1998 and a 19B Notice on 1 June 1998. The first required the council to explain the reasons for the deficit in its DLO and what remedial action it proposed. The second was the Secretary of State's re…
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current waiting list is for wheelchairs in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area; whether this is higher or lower than the national average; if it is higher, by how much, and what detailed plans it has to reduce the list and within what timescale.
Answer · Susan Deacon: There are currently no patients in the Greater Glasgow Health Board area waiting to have manual wheelchairs prescribed. However there is a time period between prescription and delivery and presently 105 patients are awaiting delivery of manual wheelchairs. To…
17 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the current waiting lists are, broken down by health board, for wheelchairs.
Answer · Susan Deacon: There is currently no national data available regarding waiting times for the provision of wheelchairs.<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">The Rehabilitation Technology Information Service (ReTIS) has been established to collect and analyse benchmarking information on wheelch…
17 May 2000 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what encouragement it gives to local authorities to follow best practice in relation to general management and personnel issues.
Answer · Frank McAveety: Local authorities are independent corporate bodies. It is entirely for them to determine what arrangements, within the law, are best suited to their needs in carrying out their functions.
10 May 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the future of the Heart Transplant Unit at Glasgow Royal Infirmary is secure and when it will make a statement confirming its continued operation.
Answer · Susan Deacon: I made the Scottish Executive's position on the Scottish Heart Transplant Unit clear during the debate on Wednesday 24 May.
27 Apr 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are in place to ensure the continued existence of projects such as ERGO, the youth training agency in Dundee for 14-20 year olds, which are currently maintained by European funds, when European funding is terminated.
Answer · Jack McConnell: European funding will continue to be available from the new Structural Funds programmes to be introduced later this year. As I announced to the European Committee on 4 pril, arrangements are in preparation to provide bridging finance for vulnerable projects i…
5 Apr 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Grampian Enterprise spent in attracting the World Corporate Games to Aberdeen in July 2000, which companies have agreed to take part and whether a list of sponsors is available.
Answer · Henry McLeish: This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise and I have asked the Chairman to reply to the member. A copy of the reply will be placed in SPICe.
9 Mar 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what services exist, in the voluntary and statutory sectors, to assess the needs of men who have been the victim of sexual abuse in childhood or sexual assaults as adults, and to provide them with ongoing support, counselling and advocacy, and whether it is satisfied that this service pro…
Answer · Jim Wallace: There is no central record of services to assess the needs of men who have been the victim of sexual abuse in childhood or sexual assaults as adults.<P ALIGN="JUSTIFY">However the <I>Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland</I> which was published in …
24 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-3061 by Susan Deacon on 18 February 2000, what proportion of the #100 million expected saving has been re-invested in patient care since the Trust reconfiguration in April 1999.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The implementation of the White Paper, <I>Designed to Care</I>, will provide savings of £100 million over a four-year period from 1998-99, by reducing bureaucracy and abolishing the "internal market" within the NHSiS.<FONT FACE="Arial" SIZE=2><P>All…
24 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will introduce, as part of its economic development strategy, monitoring of the wages of workers in new or expanded operations in Scotland, in particular in call centres.
Answer · Henry McLeish: A Framework for Economic Development in Scotland is currently being devised. The process involves wide-ranging and inclusive consultation with interested groups and individuals across the Scottish economy. The formal consultation period ended on 6 March and a…
23 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what amount of money must be involved in cases of alleged fraud in order to trigger a police investigation in each police authority area; why such limits are imposed, and why these limits vary between police authority areas.
Answer · Jim Wallace: It is for the police to investigate any incident of fraud reported to them. There is no arbitrary financial limit which triggers an investigation. Decisions on subsequent prosecutions are a matter for the Procurator Fiscal concerned.
21 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why the Ombudsman for Housing Associations has retired, what plans have been made for a replacement and what arrangements have been made for public scrutiny of the appointment.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Ombudsman took a personal decision to retire on the grounds that he was beyond normal retirement age. Scottish Homes, which at the moment is responsible for this service, is currently in the process of recruiting a new Ombudsman.<P>As part of a general co…
21 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the NHS dental budget was raised by dental charges in 1997-98, 1998-99 and to date in 1999-2000.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The percentage of the gross NHS general dental services budget collected from patient charges in 1997-98 and 1998-99 respectively was 29.36 and 29.16. Patient charges constitute 28.23% of planned gross general dental services expenditure for 1999-2000.
21 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what was the spending in actual and real terms on the NHS dental budget in 1997-98, 1998-99 and to date in 1999-2000.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The figures requested are listed in the table below:<P><TABLE BORDER CELLSPACING=1 CELLPADDING=7 WIDTH=522><TR><TD VALIGN="TOP" COLSPAN=3><FONT FACE="Arial"><P ALIGN="CENTER">GROSS EXPENDITURE ON NHS GENERAL DENTAL SERVICES (£,000)</FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD WID…
17 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what services are available to men across Scotland who are the victims of sexual offences, whether as children or as adults, and whether it is satisfied that this service provision is adequate.
Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive funds Victim Support Scotland to provide practical and emotional support to all victims of crime. Specially trained volunteers provide specific help to victims of rape and sexual assault, irrespective of gender. All victims of violent c…
14 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in the light of the recent Accounts Commission report Benefits, Finance and Housing, it will urgently bring forward proposals to write off local authority poll tax debts.
Answer · Jack McConnell: Current legislation already provides councils with the power to write off debts, with the agreement of their auditors, and where there is no prospect of recovery of the debt.
14 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the recently expressed concerns of Aberdeen Federation of Tenants' and Residents' Associations, South Lanarkshire Trades Council and Hamilton Federation of Tenants, calling for a moratorium on council housing stock transfers.
Answer · Wendy Alexander: I am aware of these calls for a moratorium on housing transfers. The Scottish Executive is committed to promoting community empowerment, control and ownership. Transfer will only take place if a majority of tenants in a ballot vote for it.
14 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive why there has been a delay in the publication of the literacy and numeracy survey of adult learners; whether it will provide a summary of the main results of this survey, and what policy implications the survey has for the adult literacy programme.
Answer · Henry McLeish: The Scottish Executive is currently funding a national development project on adult literacies that will produce good practice guidelines for practitioners. As part of that project, a survey was carried out last year of the pattern and nature of provision by …
9 Feb 2000 · General Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied with the level of information made available to Glasgow's tenants about the Executive Steering Group's housing stock transfer proposals and whether the ballot to determine Glasgow's tenants' position on the stock transfer proposal is still due to be held in Novembe…
Answer · Wendy Alexander: The Glasgow Housing Partnership Steering Group is preparing a framework within which tenants can be fully involved in shaping any proposal for community ownership. Full consultation with tenants will begin as soon as the Group has completed its work and the d…
1 Feb 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide specific figures on or an estimate of how many council tax payers are currently in debt to local authorities for their water and sewerage charges and not for their council tax.
Answer · Jack McConnell: This information is not held centrally.
20 Jan 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much in cash terms the pay deal to nurses, doctors and other health workers will cost over the next three years and what percentage of the increase in the health care budget this will represent.
Answer · Susan Deacon: The cost of meeting the 2000-01 pay recommendations of the Review Body for Nurses, Midwives, Health Visitors and Professions Allied to Medicine (NPRB) and the Review Body for Doctors and Dentists (DDRB) over the next three years is as follows:<TABLE BORDER CE…
14 Jan 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what savings have been made to the NHS dental budget in Scotland as a result of changes in dental charges in 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 (projected).
Answer · Susan Deacon: None. Gross expenditure on general dental services continues to rise.
13 Jan 2000 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff were employed in community adult education in each of the last five years, and what the projected figures are for the next year.
Answer · Henry McLeish: This information is not held centrally.